4Ps beneficiaries urged to tap Meralco’s discount program

MANILA, Philippines  —Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has so far received 33,655 applications for its socialized pricing mechanism, with the distributor urging more eligible consumers to sign up and benefit from discounted rates.

According to Meralco, it already approved 29,576 of total applications for the Lifeline Rate Program, most of which were beneficiaries of the national government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). The other remaining applications are still being processed.

The program is a discount mechanism set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) based on consumption. Households within the Meralco franchise area that consume no more than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity are eligible. The discounts are automatically reflected in their monthly bills once registered.

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“We continue to encourage all those qualified to be part of the program to go to our business centers and apply because this would be of great help to them,” said Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco first vice president and head of corporate communications.

The Department of Energy (DOE) previously said only one out of 20 households that were qualified for the program had registered, prompting the agency to look for other ways to pull up the number.

As of Jan. 11, the ERC pegged the number of registered beneficiaries at around 200,000, way below the 4.2 million qualified under 4Ps.

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Meralco clarified they do not have exact figures as to how many customers within its service area were qualified to apply, as some Meralco bills were not registered under the names of the 4Ps beneficiaries.

“We do not have control on who applies, so what we do is we conduct barangay caravans to encourage those qualified,” Meralco said.